154 



SUBKIKGDOM TEBTEBBATA. 



Fig. 260. 



Aix sponsa, 

 Wood or Summer Duck. t > c . 



Arctic regions, occasionally 

 coasts.* The dark, rock- 

 colored hue of the females 

 is an excellent mimicry, 

 and they will remain on 

 the nest till trodden upon 

 The Goosander^ has a 

 narrow, cylindrical bill, 

 with a saw-like margin, 

 the teeth pointing back- 

 ward, and the tip armed 

 with a hooked nail. It 

 swims wholly submerged, 

 seizing fish, whose very 

 struggles force them more 

 readily into the gullet of 

 their captor. J 



* It breeds upon the cliffs, and the 

 down with which it lines its nest 

 has great commercial value. It is 

 obtained by robbing it two or three 

 times a season, the male at last sup- 

 plying the deficiency from his own 7 

 breast. 



t This is one of the species of 

 Ducks popularly called Mergansers 

 or Sheldrakes. 



$ Sometimes the fish is so long 



The Wood Duck nests in hol- 

 low trees, sometimes twenty feet 

 above the ground, and six feet 

 below the opening. For lining, 

 it uses down from its own breast. 

 As soon as the whole brood of 

 twelve or fifteen are hatched, the 

 mother takes them by the wing 

 or back of the neck, and deposit- 

 ing them on the ground, hastens 

 with them to the water. 



The Eider Duck inhabits the 

 migrating to the middle Atlantic 



Fig. mi. 



Somatena mollis&ma, Eider Duck. r \ 

 Fig. 262. 



Merffus americanus, Goosander. T ' T . 



